With the global widespread of the Covid-19 virus, ASUS Design Centre Singapore (SADC) has adopted a “Work from Home” (WFH) arrangement to minimize the transmissions and risks associated with the virus. Working from home is convenient and comfortable, but it could get lonely, uninspiring and boring as you face the same four walls on from day to night. However, our team members at SADC have some tricks up our sleeves to make working from home fun, productive, and inspiring. Here are some WFH tips we have to keep our creative juices flowing and maintain our sanity while being confined in our homes. 

1) Starting the day right  

When you’re working from home, it’s easy to just hit the snooze button and head back to bed. But to have a productive day, it’s good to wake up early to spend some time for various activities such as reading, enjoying a cup of coffee, having a good breakfast, do some exercise or meditation…etc. Such activities will not only help freshen up your mind but also help you prepare mentally for the rest of the day. 

2) Healthy eating  

Having a healthy and nutritious breakfast is one of the ways of starting the day right. It helps provide us with energy throughout the day and would give us a better ability to focus and concentrate on our meal. The budding chefs in SADC would prepare a healthy breakfast with a nice cup of coffee before starting work.  

3) Keeping in contact 

There is nothing lonelier than working in complete silence every day. To escape from the lonely mornings, we set aside the first 30 minutes of the working day to update and talk to each other through Microsoft Teams. By doing so, we remain connected and close despite all of us working from various locations around Singapore. Throughout the day, we would continue to send messages to each other on Teams or WhatsApp to catch up and be in touch with other, motivating and updating each other about our current work progress as well as our work from home situation.  

4) Positive Work Environment 

Creating a conducive workspace is key to having a productive work from home experience. Having some plant around your workspace, sunlight and fresh air are essential to make your home working environment as comfortable and pleasant as possible. 
Keeping it organized is paramount, as a disorganized or cluttered workspace reflects a cluttered mind and reduces your productivity. Ideally, the home office space emulates that of a true work environment.

5) Having new co-workers 

Being stuck at home, it may get lonely as we miss our co-workers whom we used to see every day in office. However, working at home does not mean that we cannot have “co-workers”. We may need to adapt to having new co-workers – workers who may have zero idea on what we do for a living. These are the people whom we live with, our family members, housemates or even our best friend. Chatting with these new co-workers could help curb loneliness and make you feel inspired while you’re having breaks in-between the day. 

6) Staying fit and healthy  

As the gyms are closed and being confined to our homes, we need to find ways to stay fit and healthy. Members of SADC would engage it various workouts at home, ranging from stretching, weight training, HIIT and even yoga to keep our body in shape and energize throughout the day. 

7) Keeping those creative juice flowing  

Being in isolation for a long time could affect the designer’s creative process as they may feel inspired looking at four walls for hours on end. However, at SADC, our designers find different ways to keep themselves inspired amidst these troubling times. One of the ways is to take breaks between the day by getting updated/inspired from various design websites. As we are using laptops for work, moving around the house and having a change in the working environment could help us get more inspired as we see and work in a different atmosphere. 

8) Planning  

Lastly, planning ahead is important to make your day efficient, having a weekly goal/ plan would help steer us in the right direction for the entire week. At the start of each day, plan your daily schedules and create a to-do list that could help keep you on track to minimize distractions and maximize your productivity. Our team is using Trello to track our progress as well as our teammate’s progress.